Tuesday

Two candidates running to unseat U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch in Tuesday's Democratic primary say affordable, accessible health care is at the top of their priority lists.

Christopher Voehl of Milton and Brianna Wu of Dedham are challenging the eight-term congressman for the Democratic nomination for the seat. There is no Republican primary candidate, meaning the winner of Tuesday's Democratic Primary is also guaranteed a win in November.

Voeh, a jumbo jet pilot for UPS, said he supports greater access to affordable health care, but does not back socialized medicine.

"Socialized health care doesn’t do anything except raise taxes on the working class," the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel said. "We need to control drug prices and increase the availability of access to make it more affordable and if we don’t lower costs, it’s not accessible. We can either have socialized medicine, or we can save Medicare and Social Security because we can’t afford to do both."

Wu, the co-founder of Giant Spacekat, an independent video game development studio, said her father was a physician who opened a women's clinic in the 1980s, so she understands the rising cost of health care. "Medicare for all could be an effective solution, but it would be scarily expensive, so I think we need a solution that is multi-factorial," she said. "The bottom line is that the system is set up to make people providing health care a lot of money, and that has to be addressed."

She said she is also concerned about income inequality. "Ordinary Americans don’t wake up thinking about the right or the left. They think, ‘Can I afford my rent? Can I afford to get my car fixed if it breaks down?" she said.

A former ironworker and attorney, Lynch was elected to the 9th Congressional District seat in 2001. He won re-election to the 8th District seat in 2010 after a restructuring of the state’s congressional districts. He serves on the House Committee on Financial Services and Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is the ranking Democrat on the National Security Subcommittee.

If midterm elections return the House to Democratic control, Lynch would become chairman of the National Security Subcommittee. He said two of his top priorities are catching up on the work the Republicans have failed to tackle on that committee, and strengthening Social Security.

"Republicans haven’t done any oversight since Trump took office, so we have a whole slew of work to do in respect to foreign interference in our elections and what has happened with Cohen, and Manafort, and Gates and Flynn — all of those people have never appeared for a hearing," he said. "Becoming chairman would give me a lot to do."

Lynch, of Boston, said the oversight committee has also failed to conduct any meaningful review of the operations in Afghanistan.

He said he also wants the opportunity to work in support of some "very strong" bills that have been filed to make Social Security sound for the next 75 years.

After several decades in public service, Lynch, who grew up in public housing in South Boston and was an iron worker for 20 years, said he thinks voters know him and what he stands for.

"That experience is not common in Congress, and it has guided me and helped me establish priorities that are exceedingly important today for a lot of people," he said.